Monday: Not Somehow but Triumphantly
WEEK 48
MONDAY
NOT SOMEHOW BUT TRIUMPHANTLY
Matthew 5:10-12
There are those who have to live in homes where there is the silent pressure of incompatibility or alcoholism or unfaithfulness or constant nagging. There are three remedies: one is to run away; another is to retreat completely within. Both are defeatist. The third is the one I suggest, namely, to retreat within and secure one’s base by full surrender to God and by keeping a quiet time. Then go out into the crevices of the outer life and function as much as possible there as a dedicated Christian. Does that mean just muddling through?
No, it means “not somehow but triumphantly.” Everybody has to live life out under limitations. No one has a clear field, for other human wills are involved.
Jesus had to live his life out under limitations and oppositions, and in the cramping environment of Nazareth. But the account says, “Jesus matured in wisdom and years, and in favor with God and with people” (Luke 2:52). He didn’t bear his limited environment; he used it as emery stone to burnish his spirit and mind. He got through “not somehow but triumphantly.” The cramping cramped him forward.
When he went into the wilderness, he did not just get through the temptations; he got through triumphantly. He went into the wilderness “full of the Holy Spirit,” but he came out “in the power of the Spirit” (see Luke 4:1-13). Mere fullness turned to power under stress and temptation. He came through “not somehow but triumphantly.”
Again, it is said, “On the night on which he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread” (1 Cor 11:23). He turned a betrayal into a sacrament. The betrayal passed away; the sacrament lives on. He made the betrayal into a bestowal, a bestowal of life through a sacrament. He went through the betrayal “not somehow but triumphantly.”
The supreme place to see the principle at work is the cross. There he went through it “not somehow but triumphantly.” “It is finished,” he cried (John 19:30 RSV). He didn’t say, “I am finished,” but “It is finished”; the thing he came to do, namely, to redeem humanity by his death that was finished. He got through “not somehow but triumphantly.”
O Jesus, our hearts burn and yearn to make every untoward happening into a toward happening, toward victory and fruitfulness. By your grace I can do it, and will. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: All my circumstances this day shall be emery to burnish me for kingdom purposes.